A Portuguese soup, I gather — found the recipe here. Added some vegetable broth concentrate for color and flavor, and turned out very nicely, a clear soup that was still somehow rich.

Not the best quality due to iPhoneness but hey. A lovely sight regardless; taken yesterday.

I admit I’ve been feeling very woozled (that’s my word and I will stand by it) these last couple of days, partially due to being busy and having fun (helping a friend move, celebrating another friend’s birthday), partially due to recuperating from that (headache first and foremost…argh).

However, hope to have a good recipe up to share tonight, with photos of course, and more forthcoming tomorrow. Along with a bit of an overdue reflection on the weeks since the election.

That’s me and friend Y at yesterday’s Anti-Consumerism Day party. And a good party it was, though I do seem to be in major contemplation mode.

First plateful over at Stripey’s sister’s place — a big gathering, sixteen people all told counting the kids! A very nice mix of stuff — both sweet and regular mashed potatoes, stuffing, two kinds of gravy, an excellent broccoli salad, etc. My two contributions were the bread on the left there — a raisin cinnamon sesame bread from Avanti — and the cucumber salad, which is in between the bread I brought and the broccoli salad. I used this recipe and modified it slightly (no tahini available but I added sliced small sweet peppers), and I got a slew of compliments so hey! Mixing the dressing was key, aiming for a smaller amount overall with more emphasis on taste instead of oil. Worked wonders. Hope your day was equally good!

These were already up and I’m about out of here for dinner celebrations and all, but a little something to pass the time on the day. Hope everyone’s well if you celebrate, and if you don’t, hope you’re well regardless.

• The Hanson Brothers — It’s a Living
• Gore — Hart Gore/Mean Man’s Dream
• Geisha — Die Verbrechen der Liebe
• Noism — +/-
• Harry Pussy — You’ll Never Play This Town Again
• Black Elk — Always a 6, Never a 9
• Dave Aju — Open Wide
• Religious Knives — The Door
• Hush Arbors — Hush Arbors

It’s the annual Feedback issue and I was able to profile a very deserving feller, Sam Farzin, KUCI DJ and founder of the Acrobatics Everyday bunch that’s been behind a slew of wonderful shows this year around here, most recently that Japanther show from last week. To quote a bit from my piece:

Whether detailing how his interest in music was sparked in high school by the commercial breakthrough of the White Stripes or the learning curve involved in putting on shows or dealing with agents, Farzin is animated, as though he wants to talk about as many things as possible in as short a period of time as he can.

“I’d see where bands were playing in Southern California and think to myself, ‘Hey, they’re playing at UCLA, they’re playing UCSD. . . why aren’t they playing UCI?’” he recalls.

Meantime, I also did a bit of a last minute feature on the then-and-now of goth coming together with two separate shows over the next few days, the Sisters of Mercy and the Birthday Massacre. Last minute because it was meant to be a full profile of the Birthday Massacre, but the band’s touring schedule wouldn’t allow for an interview, so I punted a bit and I think it shows, but still, hopefully there’s something there of worth. A quote:

Once they went the major-label route, some of that opaqueness was lost, but the music often continued to be strong, with albums such as First and Last and Always and such singles as “This Corrosion” and “Dominion” gaining Top 40 status in their native U.K. and a huge cult audience in the U.S. and elsewhere. After a couple of compilations of singles and early EPs in the early 1990s, however, a massive falling out between Eldritch and his record company led to him refusing to record anything new. His frustration with the Goth tag grew as he found himself unable to break through both media and audience preconceptions of what the Sisters were supposed to be all about.

Since then, he has led new incarnations of the group on occasional tours and showcased a variety of unreleased songs, including the excellent “We Are the Same Suzanne” and “War on Drugs,” but the Sisters are ultimately locked in stasis. Eldritch, like so many other artists, is aware that it’s his past rather than his present that sustains interest.

There’s going to be more OC Weekly-related work by me in the near future, I hope, so stay tuned…

Busy last couple of days at work and at home (writing deadlines at all) so hurrah for a little peace. Hope your Thanksgiving, if you celebrate, is a grand one!

Friend Tracer Hand from ILX and elsewhere has gotten a recipe-swap site off the ground, How to Nom, which I just found out about. Given some of the cooking fiends I know who are mutual friends already participating in this, it could be quite a place as time goes on! Keep an eye on it.

I have two years and a few months to plan to reach this stage. (Which I assume includes jaundice, given the color of the envelope.)